Despite an international ban that was put into place in 1986, Japan, Norway and Iceland killed 1,284 whales worldwide in 2021, with 881 of them being for commercial purposes. Since 1986, these countries have killed nearly 40,000 large whales.
While it is incumbent on humans to help protect this special animal, there’s another reason for saving whales, which is that they are a key player in fighting climate change.
Our friends at Mossy.Earth recently published a blog post about how the largest animal on our planet has a big impact on our future climate – through their movements and the storing of carbon in their bodies.
When whales dive to the depths of the ocean to feed on fish and invertebrates, they bring up key nutrients like iron, nitrogen and phosphorus when they resurface. These nutrients stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, which produces up to 50 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere while also capturing 40 percent of CO2.
Whales also fight climate change through the carbon contained in their bodies, which ends up on the ocean floor when they die. According to the blog post, every great whale sequesters about 33 tons of CO2 in its lifetime.
Duarte de Zoeten, one of the founders of Mossy.Earth, further explains how whales can help in fighting climate change in this video:
For the second anniversary of the launch of the .earth web domain, we partnered with Mossy.Earth, in a campaign where for every new .earth domain purchased, a new tree was planted in a region that had been recently devastated by the 2017 wildfires in Portugal.
Thanks to this effort, the project reached a total of 7,000 trees planted – 500 of which were a direct result of the .earth domain second anniversary promotion. In addition, a well and watering system was built to support future efforts in the area and guarantee tree survival in the harsh weather.
We would like to thank Mossy.Earth for its ongoing efforts to bring back true wilderness and their support of biodiversity across a wide range of ecosystems and projects – as well as educating us on the importance of whales in today’s climate fight.
To learn more about the .Earth domain, visit Voices.Earth. In addition, many organizations and individuals are sharing their voices about the benefits of a .earth domain in our Voices.Earth podcast series.
